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Win Personal Firewall

I recently installed kerio personal firewall and must say that i was very impressed. It has all the features you could ask for with a windows personal firewall including detection of software trying to open or install other software, registry change monitoring, software changes monitoring, and of course good old port monitoring. Ive tried my fair share of firewalls and find the Kerio is the best personal firewall out there today for free downloading.

On a side note id like to mention that kerio is more of an updated version of tiny personal firewall then a whole new firewall itself, i still rank kerio's latest version above any the previously released versions of tiny.

This firewall always out ranks black ice, zone alarm, conseal, norton, and all the other many firewalls ive used.

I've never tried Kerio, as my Smoothwall box is working a charm. Someday i'll have to try it... Neway, is Kerio as good as ZoneAlarm F/W, as many people i know rave about ZoneAlarm?

I've also heard that BlackIce Defender isn't all great, as it is vaunerable to Ping Flooding that lets an attacker on purpose crash or take control of the victim's machine. Does neone know that pros and cons of BlackIce?

Neway, for all you tech-savvy users out there and haven't heard of Smoothwall, it is a linux-based OS that is small in size, and can be installed as a firewall, VNC etc. And best of all, you can drag out that old x386 machine out (if not already using it ) and use that. Very realiable, since built on Linux its highly configurable, and you can control the box with the browser in your other machines.

p.s. I know that SmoothWall isn't a true Window firewall, but i though i'd add it cuz you can run windows still though the firewall. Also hardware firewalls are generally better than software firewall, and yes i do know it depends on the admin
p.p.s. Plz don't abuse the funky text effects, it looks like siht

As far as free firewalls go, I think ZoneAlarm (basic) is alright, but not great because of it's very limited set of features (program controls, limited ability to change settings, VBS e-mail protection only, and basic port blocking).

It sounds like Kerio is pretty robust as far as features on a free firewall. I'll have to check it out for some friends and family's computers.

For those using Smoothwall and BlackICE, how do they compare?

As for myself, I run ZoneAlarm Pro because I really like it's features (Pop-up blocking, cookie control, password protection to keep people from turning it off, e-mail virus protection, cache cleaner, etc) and have found it to be very reliable.

dont use xp firewall...its just my preference i dont like it because a freind of mine had his turned on automaticly by his isp.
i want total control and for that i trust the sygate and nortons personal f/w
those are the firewalls i would recomend for anyone wanting security..although i will say that no system is impossible to crack with the right tools and enough determination the right person could find the right door to come in....just dont leave the door wide open by not having a firewall.